Manufacturers of food equipment regularly seek to provide devices which limit access by users of the equipment to areas of operating machine elements while the elements are performing food altering or manipulating functions. In so doing, they have often made the equipment more complex. In turn, this design complexity has presented problems of machine cleanliness and loss of productivity during cleaning, particularly where the machines are of a batch-making type and must be cleaned between food batches or when changing batches from one type of food product to another. The more complex and cumbersome the design of guarding, the more difficult it can be to clean and maintain the cleanliness of the machine. This is particularly true where the guarding parts result in crevices being present in areas where food which is splashed, smeared or otherwise distributed collects in such crevices. Oftentimes, the guarding must enable visual inspection of the food during processing. This necessitates that the design be in the nature of a see-through cover which limits physical access to the product while allowing its visual inspection, but enables access when the guarding is removed from a covering position. Frequently, such guarding elements have some parts which are removable to enable their being taken to a sink for scrubbing, hosing or rinsing under a water faucet when cleaning is required. Some such equipment has attaching means for the guarding that is permanently fixed to the machine and therefore the guarding is incapable of being removed for scrubbing at a location remote from the machine. Such parts are often difficult to clean and maintain that way because of the food-collecting crevices which are not easily cleansed on the machine. It is not often that such food machines are used in an environment that allows for them to be hosed down.
One such product, the food mixer, is subject to beating and whipping actions which are capable of causing batter to be splashed about, as much from operator bowl filling and removal operations as from the mixing function itself. When a mixing function has been completed, unless a batch of the same product is to be produced and some carryover is permissible, it is ordinarily necessary to clean the guarding means and surrounding areas. While some parts of a guarding means are typically removable for sink cleaning, other guard-mounting parts remain on the machine and must be wiped clean with a cloth or some other cleaning medium.